I was proud to be there when terrorists took over Naktaomi Plaza in ’88, I was back again when Washington Dulles International got hit in ’90 and for the Federal Reserve heist in ’95.
I even celebrated the Fourth of July cyber assault in 2007 – all of them having been enjoyed. Yes, smart-talking hero in a stained vest John McClane has been elevated in my mind to godlike status for his insane ‘against the odds one man saving the day’ antics.
Now Bruce Willis resurrects his New York indesctructible everyman for a fifth instalment, this time to take down a serious threat posed by some very nasty and powerful Russian criminals with a dodgy political agenda.
Embroiled in the mix is McClane’s estranged son Jack or John McClane Junior (Jai ‘Jack Reacher’ Courtney) who is banged up in Moscow awaiting trial.
What’s a renegade cop dad to do but fly straight over to Russia and try to save his son’s bacon?
But things aren’t what they seem and before you can say ‘Erm. I think your son might not actually be a criminal but rather be a CIA agent deep undercover’, young Jack McClane is busy breaking a fellow prisoner named Komarov (Sebastian Kock) out of jail.
Komarov has a file which can ruin heavyweight politician Chagarin (Sergey Kolesnikov) – and so is obviously being chased by a small army of baddies who think nothing of mounting a full scale gun and bomb assault on the courthouse where Komarov’s trial is taking place.
The plot is the least ‘Die Hard’ to date – it’s basically less ‘one man against the odds’ and more ‘two men get caught up in a nuclear weapons conspiracy’ – but at least director Moore has the decency to include one excellent car chase, some impressive (if unhappily toned down for a 12a rating) firefights and several other action scenes.
So is it A Good Day To Die Hard? The answer is yes, as long as you compare this to rivals such as the neutered Taken 2 and Bourne Legacy, the creaky Stallone effort Bullet to the Head or even Arnie’s The Last Stand.
A Good Day To Die Hard can’t compete with Skyfall or The Raid as a ‘triple A’ action blast and it is definitely the weakest Die Hard of the series, but it packed enough thrills to have won over my eldest son who took his girlfriend. Both came away having enjoyed the lightweight action mayhem.
That’s probably enough yippee-ki-yaying now, though…